


Comfortable

by almost_certain



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: AU Canon Divergence, Angst and Humor, Background Touken, Bit of Fluff, Blood, Coffee, F/M, First Time, Flashbacks, Memories, Mild smut for the boys, Multiple Pairings, Overly complicated plot, Second Time, Shameless Smut, Slightly ooc/dark Hinami, Smut, and the girls - Freeform, ayahina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-23
Packaged: 2018-03-12 22:13:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,421
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3357152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/almost_certain/pseuds/almost_certain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hinami and Ayato are sent to :Re to gather information, gain trust and find out just how exactly Kaneki Ken became a god damn Dove! Alternatively, Hinami manages to charm everyone and Ayato just isn't comfortable anywhere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hinami is too bold with Ayato and he should by all rights put her in her place, but he's soft on her and everyone knows it.

For the second time that week, Ayato swept the dust from his jeans. He understood that war had it's costs, and he could hardly conduct business in a penthouse surrounded by half naked women and surfaces so clean they sparkled, but Eto's fondness for construction sites was beginning to grate on him. As atmospheric as sitting on an exposed metal beam and swinging her legs was, he didn't see why she couldn't, just every once in a while, find a vantage point not so thoroughly caked in dust. 

If he turned back he could just see Eto, up high against the drab grey concrete. She wasn't alone, the place was full of ghouls waiting on orders, but the rest huddled in groups complaining, or fought in the middle to kill time. They were the pawns, the masses that made up the army, and when the time eventually came they'd run head first in to the CCG without a second thought. Stupid bastards. 

He was different. He was crucial And he was strong. Kirishima Ayato was not someone you threw away on the first leg of the fight. Smiling stupidly at his own self worth, he took out his phone and dialled her number.

'Hel...'

'I need you.'

She was silent but he could hear the buzz of a cafe behind her. 'Is it urgent?'

'Not really. But you're always complaining you never get to do anything but listen to recordings and...'

'Where?'

He heard a deep voice excuse himself. 'Where are you?'

She sighed. 'Trying to read a book...' She grumbled, voice tinny through the headset. 'At a coffee shop.' There was a little sadness there, and he did his best to ignore it.

'Trying?'

'It... It's nothing.'

'Address?' 

She sighed again, longer this time, a sigh that said 'I'm thinking about it.'

'Can I meet you at your building? I'm not too far.'

'Sure.' He replied flatly, turning a corner and narrowly avoiding a collision with a deliciously scented girl. 'Do you want me to pick up food on the way, dear?' He teased.

'I've eaten.' She said flatly, and when he laughed she hung up. 

In true Hinami fashion, she was already standing there tapping her foot impatiently by the time Ayato reached the front of his miserable little building. When ghouls were on top perhaps he'd live somewhere with a view and more than two rooms, but for now a space to sleep that he could up and leave that night if he had to was as good as anything. He had never once even seen his neighbours. The place was perfect.

'Ayato-kun,' she greeted, though her tone was flat and unfriendly. 'You didn't say you were so far away.'

He shrugged, reaching up to scratch the back of his head. 'Been waiting long?'

'Not too long.' She lied, smiling sweetly. 

* * *

 

The rendezvous wasn't far. The car park with two underground and sixteen above ground levels was worryingly busy at the bottom, but Ayato held his composure as they climbed, even as Hinami sniffed the air and tensed beside him. Whatever it was she didn't like, she wasn't stopping him, hands shoved deep in her own pockets. 

'Do you know who we're meeting?' She asked in a low voice.

'No.' He admitted. 

She looked at him then, eyes soft and big under the uneven fringe of brown hair. 'Ayato... You won't like it.' 

Nishiki sat on the boot of a black Nissan which he obviously didn't own, drinking a can of iced coffee. Touka leant against the car, one knee bent and foot resting against the back driver's side door. She didn't look up when they approached, but she did grit her teeth, digging her nails in to her elbows as she kept herself deathly still. 

'Oi, I was expecting someone a little older.' Nishiki wiped his mouth on the back of his sleeve. 'A little more on time too.'

'What information do you have?' Ayato let his head droop to the side. 

Hinami tensed beside him. 

'None,' Nishiki smirked, hopping down from the boot. 

'None?' Hinami frowned. 

Ayato eyed his sister with curiosity. 'You human loving trash call us here to talk about the weather then?'

Touka laughed humourlessly. 'Open it, Nishiki.'

Without argument the taller ghoul opened the trunk, revealing a bound, gagged and very bloody ghoul, to the pair. 'We're offering Aogiri a traitor, who sold out his fellows to the doves.'

'He's responsible for the deaths of over a hundred ghouls. Some of your people, as well as ours, are in that number.'

'And serpent there didn't just kill him?' Ayato spat.

'If you don't want his information...'

'We do.' Hinami bowed her head. 'Thank you.'

Touka looked up, one eye hidden by her hair as she mustered a small smile for the girl who had once been her little sister. She eyed Ayato with the same coldness he held for her, though both managed a small nod to confirm business was done. She turned to Nishiki and spoke to them, hauling the traitor of a ghoul out of the boot with one hand. 

'Tell your bosses to keep the fight out of our territory and :Re.' She stated calmly. 'And we'll throw every collaborator or spy we find to you.' 

Ayato nodded, though no one was looking. The bloody man landed at his feet, and without turning Touka and Nishiki walked away. He clenched his fist.

* * *

'Next time, send someone else.' He stated flatly, kicking the traitor so he landed face down at Eto's feet. 'I'm not a courier.'

Hinami fidgeted, aware of the tension he held in his hands and shoulders, the buzz of anger that his forced slouch couldn't hide. 

The traitor wheezed and sobbed against his gag and the gravel. Ordinarily Ayato would have dug his heel in, but suddenly there was a groan from his lips as he turned his head up and spun away, heading for the scaffolding and eventually the city. Hinami trailed behind him, dragging her feet.

He didn't stop until he was looking up at his own building, face unreadable as Hinami came to stand at his side. 'You can go back to trying to read now.'

She smiled, 'You're done for the Night?'

His eyes were cold as he looked at her, looked down at her thick jacket, and back up to her soft features. He lazily reached out to flick one of the chords that hung from her hood. 'I might go hunting.' He muttered. 

'You might?'

'You should go back to your coffee shop. I'm sure that guy will be wondering where you are.'

She wrinkled her nose. 'You heard it?'

'He sounded like a chump.'

She frowned. 'He was nice.' 

'How'd he taste?' 

She shook her head, a soft pout shaping her lips. 

'Or doesn't he know you're a flesh eating monster?'

She regretted following him then, her discomfort plain to see in the way she shifted. 

His lip squirmed in to a sneer. 'Because you are a flesh eating monster Hinami. Flirting with them over coffee doesn't make you any better.'

'...Them...'

'Doesn't matter how pretty you are, they'll sell you out as quick as look at you...'

'Ayato...'

'And you know that better than anyone! Do they think if they keep eating suicides and serving baked goods and lattes they'll overlook what we are?'

The few people who were passing were beginning to look at them now, and if he wasn't careful he'd be outed right there, in front of his apartment. 

'Why can't you just accept what we are...'

'Ayato!' 

'We are gh...' 

She hit him with a sharp little slap right across the jaw. The passers by who had become onlookers shuffled away, embarrassed by such an intimate display of violence between what appeared to be a mismatched couple of teenagers. 

'Hina...!'

She tugged him towards the doorway, her hand tight around his wrist. 

He led her through the drab corridor and up the two flights of stairs until he was standing at his own doorway, key pressed against the lock and Hinami at his back. She hadn't been in there before. No one had, what was the point? They had always just met on the pavement outside. Still he dismissed the little flush of embarrassment that coloured his cheeks, telling himself it was anger. Once they were inside he would shout and curse about their nature and mock her peaceful past and if she wanted to stay for that then more fool her.

As soon as his door was open she slipped inside, leaving him gaping at her back as she looked around his sparse home. 'So,' she looked back at him, lips shaking. 'This is where you live.' 

'Hm.' He blinked. With hooded eyes he stalked forward, letting his door close behind him. 'What do you think you're playing at?'

The only sign of life in the place was his unmade bed, black sheets pooled at the bottom. She imagined he slept in the middle, long limbs stretched in all directions, but he had blatantly made little use of the rest of the space. An empty glass sat on the kitchen counter but the breakfast stools were pushed neatly under. Everything was too clean, but somehow still covered in a layer of dust. 

'You don't entertain much?'

'Hinami.' He warned, jaw clenching.

Her playful smile faltered. 'I'm sorry, but you were about to tell everyone in the street that we are ghouls!'

'So what if I had? I'd just kill them all.'

'Well I thought it'd be better if you didn't have to find a new place just because you're upset.'

'I'm not upset!' He spat. 

'Okay Ayato-kun,' she kept her voice soft, 'Then I'm sorry.' 

He walked up to her, cold eyes narrow and threatening. 'I think I'm too easy on you. You're too comfortable with me.'

She backed up until her spine made contact with the kitchen counter. His arms boxed her in, hands resting on the wooden surface and pressing against her ribs, and he noted as he loomed over her that she had the good sense to look ashamed. Smug, he reached up to pull at the chord of her jacket, only to pause as she flinched at his movement. 

Her breath on his lips carried the faint scent of coffee, the fainter hint of blood. She blushed as his hand grazed her chest and came to rest on her zipper. 

'I'm sorry...' 

The harsh sound of the zipper stole her breath as he yanked it down, revealing her red cardigan and white dress ensemble. She may not have looked like a child anymore, but she still played up to her innocent features, still dressed like she couldn't rip a grown man's arm off. It annoyed him that they didn't know when they were eyeing her from across the coffee shop or slipping their phone number across the table, just how strong and deadly she was. 

'Ayato...' She sighed as his lips lowered towards her, stopping him just before any contact could be made. 'Y... You don't have to be so...' She swallowed, small hands reaching up to grip at his arms. 'So lonely all the time.' She regretted the words as soon as she had said them, pushing further back against the kitchen counter as a violent flicker swam in his eyes. 

'I'm not always alone, Hinami.' He smirked, hand reaching up to pull her cute little clip from her bangs. His fingers fluffed at her hair, pulling it in to a wild dysfunctional style. She trembled. he ticked the clip in to her pocket, tapping it before raising his fingers to the throat, earning a gasp. 'Just because you can't stand it for a second doesn't mean...'

She raised herself up on her tiptoes, hands tangling in his hair and pulling him in to the sloppy open mouthed kiss. He snatched his head back, looking down at her as if she were mad, and at the way she touched shaking fingers to her own lips he couldn't help but soften his features, and gently pull her jacket free of her arms. 

'I'm too easy on you.' He repeated, nudging her nose with his own and smiling stupidly. 'I was just fine without you.' 

They landed on the bed in a bundle of deep clumsy kisses and torn red fabric, as her cardigan was shredded by impatient pulls. She'd managed to yank his jacket over his head and was having some success with his black T-shirt until he'd knocked her hands away and torn the thing off himself. Every move they made was desperate, from him tearing at her tights to her forcing his jeans down his hips so fast her nails drew blood. It wasn't until he was poised over her, pulling her pants down to her knees that he stopped to think about what they were doing. 

She was still in her white dress, the skirt fanned out so that he could only almost see everything. His fingers ran across her thigh where the white fabric stopped. She gasped as his hand inched under the skirt, grazing the soft skin of of her inner thigh, then passing the place she'd wanted him most and running across her stomach. She sat up and glared at him, eyes black and red under the messy brown blanket of her bangs. Impatiently she pulled him by the neck, kissing him and leaning back until his hips were between her thighs. 

Briefly he entertained the thought of moving back down, but her foot dug in to his back and he felt her, wet and warm, against the hard bulge of his boxers. He grunted against her kiss as he pushed his boxers down his thighs and let her rub against him. The sensation was nice enough, but the more they touched the more he needed to correct their alignment, to quell the anticipation that had his head dizzy. 

He found the angle and pushed. 

Hinami, who had been moaning and writhing for a while, went rigid beneath him. Her mouth hung open in a perfect 'o' shape, while her eyes fixed on the ceiling. 

'Fuck!' He grunted as he moved against her, holding her firmly by the hips. He kept his movements slow and shallow, but that was as much for himself as it was for her, and when her eyes locked with his and her hand dug in to his shoulder he buried himself inside her with a moan. 

They didn't last long. The bed springs creaked in protest as he fell against her, lips brushing apologies over her neck and collar bone. He'd been taken by surprise by his own body, and the alien warmth that had rushed through her had her frozen in place again.

She did something then he hadn't expected. Rather than push him away or ask him to move, she ran a hand through his hair, holding him against her still clothed chest. He pulled away from her, pulling her skirt down carefully before pulling up his own boxers and sitting back on his heels. She was bleeding, he could smell it, feel it on his own skin. He should have taken his time, made this less painful and not as rushed but it was done now, and she was sitting up and reaching to pull her pants back up. Her hair was wild, making her look older as she stared at him, eyes glazed and whole body shaking. She was more beautiful than she had ever been before, and she was his. 

'Did you... Was it...'

'Yeah...' He let a smile shape his lips. 'Come here.' He offered her his hand and pulled her up so that she was kneeling in front of him, studying the foreign look of contentment that had settled on his usually severe features. He leant down to push his lips so lightly against her own she almost laughed, only to rest his forehead against hers. 'Can I take off your dress?'

She blushed. She was sore and sweaty and they'd already had sex,  so her common sense screamed for her to say no, to go and clean herself up. All the same she nodded to him, raising her arms so he could pull it over her head, his hands roaming the freshly exposed skin of her ribs and stomach. Together they melted back against the pillows.

* * *

Just after midnight the two ghouls returned to the construction site. Ayato ignored the looks from the clustered ghouls and when Hinami stopped to tie her shoe lace he stormed ahead. Eto was standing at the edge of the top floor, humming a cheery tune as he approached. 

Hinami caught up to them, and Ayato realised that she hadn't fixed her hair, still looking as wild as she had been beneath him.  Even if she hadn't, they both reeked of sex and of each other, and it wouldn't take Hinami's senses to realise what they'd been up to before Eto's call. 

'You could have told me you were busy,' she giggled childishly. 'I can't send you out like that.'

Hinami blushed as Ayato smirked. 'Send us where?'

'Firstly, for a shower.' She tilted her head, the very picture of innocence, 'then to a coffee shop. You two are going to switch sides.'

Ayato froze. 

'That doesn't need both of us.' Hinami answered coolly. 

'No,' Eto conceded, scratching her chin. 'But two's better than one, isn't it?' She turned back to look out over the city. 'So listen up, my little moles...'

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I've made this the prologue, and I'm adding four more chapters. The second one is up, heavy touken though Touka needs a bit more characterisation.
> 
> This isn't beta read so I'd appreciate any feedback you want to give.
> 
> I'm absolutely smitten with this pairing. It's like the little girl and leather jacket boy from 'We're back, a dinosaurs story' or Santa Claus only better. I've loved pairings like that my entire life, and I just want them to be so happy together D:


	2. In the wrong

It was just before closing on a very quiet day that they fell through the door, Ayato bloody from head to toe and Hinami a pale wreck supporting him. She had been lazily cleaning the same spot on the counter for about ten minutes, mind wandering from old friends to new arrangements, to coffee suppliers and ghouls who needed a helping hand this week. Keeping busy was helping, or had helped over the last few years. Old hurts started to fade when she didn't have time to think about them. 

'Take him upstairs.' Touka ordered without a second look, rushing to check the street for Doves and close the blinds of the door. Her key turned in the lock with a loud click. 

Hinami obeyed, disappearing through the staff only door and hauling him up the stairs. She had hardly looked at her old guardian, eyes impossibly glassy with every attempt. 

With a wet dishcloth, Touka followed, quick to untie her apron and drop it on the counter. She had plenty of white shirts, but getting the stench of ghoul blood out of her favourite apron was a hassle she couldn't abide. At the top of the stairs she helped Hinami haul her half dead brother in to the spare room, dumping him carefully on the light blue sheets of the single bed. Not once did she pause to review the situation. Hesitation would lead to relief or anger or hatred, and it was so much simpler to help two ghouls she didn't feel the full spectrum of emotions for.

'What happened to him?' She asked as Hinami took the cloth and set about dabbing a long gash that worked its way from his neck to his collar bone. 

'He's not healing!' Hinami whispered, pressing harder against the wound. 'Ayato! Oi! Ayato!'

'Wait!' Touka commanded, disappearing in a blur only to reappear just as quickly, raw meat clutched in her hand. 'I'm sorry.' She leant over him, pushing it to his already blood smeared lips. 'It's probably not as fresh as you're used to.'

He took a bite all the same, swallowing chunk after chunk without chewing. In his haste he nipped at Touka's finger and she snatched it back, letting the meat go. 

Hinami shook as her fingers traced a healing wound, looking to the older sibling with tears spilling freely. 'Th...Thank you...'

Touka's breathing slowed as she watched her brother and the girl she had cared for as a sister grip on to each other as if they were the only two people in the world. Hinami brushed his hair from his face and kissed his cheeks and chin and forehead. Ayato grasped at her cardigan and arms as if he could pull her in to him even in his weakened state. 

'When did that happen?' She asked herself, fighting to her feet. 'What a disaster.'

'Hinami. When you're done, I'll be in the staff kitchen.' She stated calmly, as if they hadn't just burst through her doors and pled for her assistance after a three year absence. 

Hinami nodded but didn't turn, her lips wavering as she muttered. 'Okay.'

* * *

'It has to look real.' Eto explained as a swarm of ghouls surrounded Hinami. Ayato bared his teeth. 'We can rough you up if you'd prefer? I just thought she'd be more inclined to help Hinami, you know, since she never betrayed her or... Or tried to snack on her.'

'She'll help me.' Ayato sighed, pushing his hair out of his forehead. 'It'll be more believable if it's Hinami taking me, anyway.'

As Ayato felt them slice and stab at him, he became increasingly glad that Eto never asked him to explain how it would be more believable because in truth, he was half convinced Touka would let him bleed out on her doorstep. 

Hinami's arms cut through the beating, and in a voice that held more authority than Hinami ever had she declared 'That's enough! He's had enough!' 

No one stepped forward again.

* * *

Touka handed a bundle of clothes to Hinami, her face passive, but not cold as they washed over the younger ghoul. 'Bring me your clothes, and his, and I'll wash them straight away. But those should fit you.'

'Thank you... Onee...'

'It's fine.' She answered sharply. 'I have to finish closing the shop.'

'A... Alone?'

Touka smiled weakly. 'It was quiet so I let Roma take the day to herself. My mistake, huh Hinami?' The forced lightness in her voice made Hinami frown. 'Yomo will be back tonight. Until then, just call down if you need anything.'

The younger ghoul nodded, not daring to meet Touka's gaze. 

Back in the room, Ayato was slowly chewing the last of the cold meat. 'Hey,' he croaked after swallowing, tongue sweeping up the watery blood from the side of his mouth. 

'They almost killed you!' She whispered, sitting on the bed beside his hip and twisting so she could examine his torso. Most of his wounds were already closed, but the large gash was still there, healing, but still deep. 

'She wouldn't have let us in if I wasn't half dead.' He countered, but truth be told he had honestly thought he was going to die at some point there. And what a plan that would have been really. His shitty aneki would have to welcome Hinami with open arms for that. 

'You were more than half dead.' She reached to sweep his hair back but he caught her hand and pushed it away.

_Eto's voice swam loud in her ears. 'Something tells me Kirishima Touka will be a sucker for the plight of young love.'_

'Don't.' He warned. 

'Ayato-kun?' She pulled back, watching him from the edge of the bed with a guardedly serene expression. 

He sat up, grunting as he did. The wound on his chest had finally finished stitching itself back together, but his insides were still sore. There were still bruises. 'I bet those fuckers enjoyed it, getting a chance to challenge me.'

'If you'd fought back you would have killed them.' She nodded. 'I don't blame them for taking the opportunity...'

'Why'd you stop them then?'

'You're not a very nice boss, Ayato...'

He snorted. 'They can take it up with human resources.'

'But nice won't win this war, will it?' She smiled sadly. 

Kaneki had realised that once. Nice, Antieku, it had all burned to the ground. Nice had lost her everyone. 

She narrowed her eyes and looked at the window, to the familiar pink smear of the evening sky. 'This ward is so quiet compared to everywhere else.' She kicked off her shoes and nudged him until he moved over slightly and let her lie beside him on the bloody sheets. 'Like they don't know we're fighting at all.'

'The ghouls here hide.' He drawled. 'They are weak.'

She had been once.

* * *

Hinami's mind would often wander while she frothed milk or ground beans, even when the queue was to the door and the din of :Re was deafening. Usually Nishiki would elbow her or tut until she snapped out of it, but once or twice it was Touka who had put her hand on the girl's shoulder and told her to take a break. They had still not spoken about anything other than Ayato's health (mental mostly), and they'd been working there for weeks. 

Unlike her, Ayato had been kept in the back rooms. He went with Yomo to collect food, and he went with Nishiki to neutralise threats, but for whatever reason Touka kept him away from the shop floor. If he was to pass through she would avoid his gaze, laugh at a customer or a colleague and make herself busy. He didn't mind it, not even when he found her walking in to the store room to get some coffee beans and blanking him completely. Really it made the whole thing a lot easier. 

When Sasaki Haise finally walked in, a tall and chiseled ghost clad in a black shirt, white tie, smart pinstripe trousers, Hinami had to be excused to the back room. Here he was, not a fuzzy memory but a walking talking solid shape but seeing him only made her feel sick. The white hair was growing out, and the creeping black roots reminded her too much of a soft faced older brother who would blush if he caught her eating and help her read her favourite books. He had been so at ease when he spoke with Touka, greeting her like a loyal customer who had just been too busy to call in for a while. His smile wasn't his, it was too bold, too charming. 

'Eto was right then,' Ayato, who had been sitting at the table and doodling over an order form took in her flushed appearance, the way her hand held tight around the door handle. 'Kaneki Ken is alive?' 

Had he seen him already? She glared at him, eyes darker as she sighed. 'It's not him. He's not right.' 

'What do you mean?' 

'It's his body but...' She shook her head. The smell was the same, and his eyes and his shape and the timbre of his voice was slightly deeper, more confident but ultimately Kaneki's. It was just that the strings holding all his features together were different now, cut from a thread she didn't recognize. Subtle changes in his eyes, the way he smiled and moved his long limbs to take his coffee, boldly brushed his finger's against Touka's and made stupid jokes, they all reeked of someone new. 

'Then the CCG didn't kill that eyepatch bastard? I thought they might take his kakuhou and make a pretty quinque but they took all of him, huh?' 

'He's a dove.' She sighed. 'Kaneki is a...' 

'Calm down. Touka seems to know him.' He returned to the doodles. 'She's not as surprised as you. Just ask her about it later.'

She let her head fall back against the door. 'He's a shell.' She muttered. 'A god damn shell.' 

'He could be a corpse.' He stretched his arms, bones in his shoulders popping into place. He'd had nothing to do for a few hours, and leaning over the table had left it's strain. 'Would you rather he was a corpse?'

'No!' She hissed. 

'Then shut up, you idiot.' He stared for a moment, then his lips curled in to a slight smile. 'Aren't you glad we haven't just wasted a month here?' 

Touka burst through the door, sending Hinami stumbling towards the table, her hands landing smack on the doodle of a coffee shop exploding. She was breathless and pale, shaking a little in her hands but managing to keep herself composed otherwise. 'Hinami,' she swallowed, eyes fixing on the girl's. 'I should have told you but... He hasn't been in for a while and I didn't want to get your hopes up.' When Hinami didn't speak Touka turned back to the door, still a little out of breath. 'You should stay back here. There are senior officers in the booths and...'

'She'll be fine back here.' Ayato smirked, and to his surprised Touka looked up at him, nodding her head gently. 'Thank you, aneki.' 

Hinami stared at him as if he had grown another head, and as the door swung closed behind their boss, she blinked back tears. 

'When he's gone we should go and meet with Hennessy.'

'Can't we just send a message?'

He stood. 'Yeah, if you don't mind Yomo finding out. Bastard's like a blood hound. Doesn't trust me.'

'Okay. Ayato-kun?'

'Hm?'

'You... You seem happier here...' 

At the way his face twisted she realised she had said the wrong thing. Ayato's eyes clouded, his hands balled in to fists at his sides. He looked to the table, to his drawing, then to her and opened his mouth only to close it again, hand nervously raking over tussled hair. 

The tension was abruptly broken as Nishiki, arms full of broken china, burst through the door in a hale of foul language. 'Damn woman can't hold herself together for five minutes.' He explained, depositing the shards in a recycling bin. 'Why can't he drink coffee somewhere else, huh? There are plenty of coffee shops in Tokyo!' 

He looked between the two of them, raising a dark eyebrow and pushing his glasses up his nose. 'I forgot. No one told you did they?' 

'No.' Hinami looked down at her feet. 'No one told us...' 

'Well he's alive Hinami.' Nishiki smiled. 'That brat is alive.'

Was he though, if someone else was walking around in his body?

* * *

The conversation flitted from ghouls, to inspectors, to Akira's bra size to Saiko's weight, but Haise hadn't heard a word since she had brought him his second cup of coffee.

Mutsuki shifted nervously next to him, looking down at his own recently refilled cup. 'Is everything alright Sassan?' He asked, nudging his boss with an elbow. 

Haise blinked. 'What?' He jumped, cutting the conversation at the other side of the table off. The Quinx squad blinked in unison, startled by his abrupt outburst. A few nearby customers had looked over too. 'Oh... Uh... Sorry.' He smiled, scratching his chin. 'I was just thinking about the plan.' 

'Right...' Urie grunted. 'The plan.' 

What was the plan? Haise had no idea. They had been trying to go over it for almost an hour and he still had no idea. 

The truth was, and it was a stupid thing to admit to anyone, he had spent the entire time fighting the urge to stand and collect the empty cups from tables. His muscles twitched to take orders, to help the beautiful waitress with her workload, smiling at customers, wiping down tables, tying the apron string around the small of his back. 

'You always get so weird here.' Saiko pouted, and the other three squad members gaped at her. 'What? He does.' 

'I do.' Haise agreed. 'I mean... I do?' 

'Yeah. All misty eyed and full of long sighs. Got a thing for the waitress boss?' 

'No.' He smirked. 'I just like the coffee.'

'Hot coffee.' She giggled.

'What?'

'Nothing... Like Grand theft auto...'

'Saiko!' Shirazu grunted. 

He found himself drifting again as they went back to bickering, this time about the waitress, and the pretty girl that had disappeared in the back room that had felt so familiar. The voice in his head pushed against the back of his eyes, clawing, hissing, telling him to wake up and smell the coffee. Not in those exact words, he was a lot crasser. 

'Do you think,' he cut them off again. 'Ghouls can be... good?' 

They all blinked again, except Urie, who looked positively disgusted. 

'Good?' He spat.

Sasaki Haise shrugged. 'Not bad, then.' When this did nothing to calm the young man he sighed. 'Just not evil. Like normal. Do you think Ghouls can just be... normal?'

'What the fuck are you talking about?' Urie slammed his hand on the table. 

Kirishima touka appeared at the edge of the table, a pleasant smile not hiding the way she eyed Urie with distaste. 'Is everything alright with your coffee?' She asked, looking around the table at the blank faces. 

It was Mutsuki who finally spoke, clearing his throat and raising his cup. 'It is perfect, as always. Thank you.'

A more genuine smile lit her face for the politer investigator. 'You're welcome. Is there anything I can get for you?' 

'No.' Haise smiled. 'We're done here. But thanks.' 

'Any time.' She smiled at him, just for him then, and her eyes took on that slightly sad quality that made his heart break, her lips ever so slightly down at the edges, and so soft... 'And I don't know, inspector,' she turned, bowing her head respectfully, 'if Ghouls can be normal. But we humans can be evil, can't we?' 

Urie gasped as if he had been slapped, and scowled at her long after she had left their table. 

He couldn't help but laugh. She wasn't wrong, she was perfect. She was too good to be true. And the voice in his head hissed at him something lost to his own voice announcing. 'We can be! Can't we!' 

_And we have been in the wrong. We have been so many times._

* * *

'I'll pass the message on,' Hennessy, his designated messenger, nodded as he eyed Ayato wearily. 'She was starting to worry you'd actually switched sides.' 

Ayato scoffed. 'Do me a favour and get moving! The sooner I'm done here the sooner I'm done in that shitty coffee shop.'

Around the corner, Hinami smiled, leaning back against the cold concrete of a graffiti ridden wall. A blush coloured her cheeks as she remembered her earlier words.  _'You seem happier here'_  , but he did. He was starting to talk to Yomo and Nishiki. He'd even answered Roma's questions eventually (Did he really break 103 of your bones? Is it true you've killed over a hundred doves? [Yes and it really fucking hurt. No probably something like fifty if I was to count.) and now the girl would chat to him as if he was a firm friend, though she never spoke to Hinami. He still avoided his sister, partly because he hated her lifestyle, and partly from guilt, Hinami could only guess, but to the rest of the staff he had lost his edge, slowly gained acceptance. 

Even for someone as cold as he was, betraying them wouldn't exactly be pleasant.

He took her hand in his as he turned the corner, and pulled her so hard the bones in her wrist crunched under his fingers. 'Ouch!' She hissed, trying to pull back. 

Despite Eto's advice to return to Touka's world as lovers, they had instead spent a great deal of time trying to convince everyone they weren't. It suited them really. Time at Aogiri was spent on missions or planning missions and sex in the midst of that was inevitable. They were permanently on call, so why not fall in to bed together. It wasn't as if she actually liked him or anything, she told herself. It was two parts convenience and one part boredom and just bad luck that when she had started noticing body shapes and beautiful faces he had been there with his. So she'd flirted and overstepped her mark and eventually he'd given in to it and for almost a month they hadn't touched each other besides the occasional rub of shoulders or to hand over papers and cups. They didn't speak around anyone else and they only spoke to each other about their mission, or the coffee. 

'Ayato-kun!' She huffed as he pushed her in to an alleyway and followed, pushing her against the wall. His lips missed hers but instead of correcting himself he trailed them down her cheek to her jaw. His hands pushed under her jacket at the back, sliding up the warm skin and pulling her against him. 

* * *

 Sasaki Haise didn't know what he was doing. Free evenings didn't come along often, and he should probably spend his refreshing his mind with a book and a glass of wine (just for aesthetic purposes really), but there he was, standing outside :Re with his heart fluttering around his ribcage like a bird with a broken wing. Inside, Kirishima Touka and that tall guy with a face that screamed boredom were sniping at each other while he swept up and she put clean cups away. 

 Their barbs, and he could almost match sounds to the movements of their lips but not quite, lacked venom. Their argument sprang from habit and not any true hostility. 

'Can I help you?' A small voice made him jolt, turning around to find a young woman with short red/brown hair staring up at him. At the site of his face her mouth dropped open, but she shook her head clear of the shock and offered a smile. 'I'm just here to pick up my boyfriend.' She pointed at the interior, where the two people were now laughing. 'Are you here to see Touka-chan?'

He reached up to his shoulder, rubbing an imagined ache. 'Uh, yes. Who are...'

'Oi, Kimi.' Nishiki called from the door, holding his hand over his eyes as if it would make him see further in the dark. 'You're early.'

'I...' She eyed Haise, smiling mischievously. 'We came to help.'

Nishiki didn't like Haise hanging around for too long. One day his memory would jog again, and serpent wouldn't be some man he fought, he'd be someone working at a coffee shop with all his old ghoul pals and the centipede would burst through and wreck everyone's day. 'Fine.' He said in a low but calm voice. 'Oi, Touka, we've got some extra hands.'

'And legs.' Haise blushed.

'Yeah.' Kimi laughed, pulling him after her in to :Re. 

After closing the place felt different. It was cold but homely, and the deafening silence pressed heavy on his ears. Kimi and Nishiki weren't helping as much as they were pinching each others attention with kisses or jibes, so with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows Haise set about restocking ever sugar pot, a task Nishiki had straight up abandoned. 

Touka studied his face, his movements. 'Have you worked somewhere like this before?' She asked softly. Her voice was a little hopeful, he thought. 

'N... No, I don't think.'

'You don't think?' She wrinkled her nose. 'Inspectors have to be able to think.'

'Ah. Good one Kirishima-san. I mean I... I don't think I have worked somewhere like this. But I like it, the smell. It's calming. It's familiar.'

'Oh?' She squeaked, and he watched her eyes glaze over, her fingers twitch. 'A lot of people say that. I wanted :Re to be a safe place for our customers.' She cleared her throat, turning to frown as Nishiki knocked over a stool while chasing Kimi with a wet cloth. 'Somewhere they could get away from the... Hey! Shitty Nishiki! Get out!' She snapped, and the little voice inside his head said 'there she is.' 

'Touka?' He straightened the stool, mock offense stretching his features. 'Lighten up. He's not buying anything anyway...'

'Go home.' She sighed. 'I'm sorry Kimi. I've been keeping him too long lately. Go see a movie, go for a walk. Go do your couples shit elsewhere!' She said it with a smile, but Haise felt the cold rush in at her words. 

Nishiki nodded, and Kimi gave Touka a thankful little grin. As they departed, she turned to Haise. 'I'm sorry. I just realised that they don't get much time together, and besides, I have my own personal inspector to cover for him don't I?'

'Uh... Yeah.' He grinned, like an idiot. She was so unbelievably close to him, withing reach at least, and he recalled her touch somehow, trailing up the flat expanse of his stomach, ruffling his hair as a disguise, pulling his jacket away from his shoulder. Forcing human meat in to his mouth and human food down her own. 

He recalled, just briefly, her weight in his arms, and the way her soft hair tickled his arm pleasantly while the rest of his body hurt.

'I should go.' He felt his head throb, and somewhere at the back of his mind a madman rattled his chains. 'I'm sorry, I just completely forgot something I... I need to do.' 

'Oh?' She laughed humorlessly. 'Okay, I... Do you...' She stepped back, letting cold air chill the space between them. 'Are you alright?'

'Yes! Yes I'm fine.' He insisted, snatching his jacket from the back of a chair and swinging it on. 'I'll see you soon, Kirishima-san.'

He bolted, that was the only way Touka could describe it. She stood eerily still, watching his shadow pass the windows until he was gone, and then Kirishima Touka put her fist through the counter, letting all the tension ebb out of her as her eyes turned black and red. 

* * *

She'd pushed him off when his lips had finally strayed to her own, eyes full of questions and desire that looked a bit too much like shame. He'd looked at her a moment before taking back his hand, letting her jacket fall down and retreating in to the street. If she had followed immediately she might have caught him soon enough, but Hinami instead found herself in a daze, slowly edging back out in to the street, fingers pushed to her lips to confirm that yes, there had just been a pressure there. Her neck was still warm too, but his saliva was cooling on her skin. 

She took out her phone to ring him, listening to the tone as she drifted down the street. It was her third attempt when he finally picked up, and she bumped in to a solid mass of adorable jumper and soft golden hair, forgetting the phonecall. 

The boy looked her over, his mouth twisting in to a polite smile. 'I'm so sorry.' He blushed, offering her a hand and pulling her to her feet. 'I wasn't looking...'

'No it's quite alright.' She smiled in what she hoped was a cute manner. 'Please, no apology necessary.' 

'No?' He dusted off his sweater, then ran his hand through his hair, pushing it back from his forehead. 'That's what gentlemen do when they knock over pretty girls in the street, isn't it?' 

_Just because you're pretty..._

Her cheeks lit up. 

'Can I... Would you like to get a drink? To make up for it?' The boy asked.

Hinami squeaked, and reached down to pick up her phone. A glance at the screen made her turn the colour of a tomato. 'I'm sorry.' She pointed to the handset. 'I was on the phone and I need to...'

'Okay.' The boy nodded, scratching the back of his head. 'But... Would you... Would you like my number or something? IT'S OKAY IF YOU DON'T!'

Hinami couldn't help but smile. He was so obviously nervous, so shy and easily rattled but brave enough to ask her out all the same, no matter how uncomfortable it made him. 

'Sure,' she conceded, handing him her phone. She knew full well that she would never ring him, and if she did she would never meet him, and if she did she would never love him. But it wouldn't hurt, indulging a stupid human whim once in a while would it? And the way he was looking at her made her feel so much like a stupid human girl. 

He handed her phone back and departed with a wave, then another once he'd taken a few steps. Hinami stood still, smiling as she watched him go, then dialed Ayato again. This time he picked up instantly. 

'That's what gentlemen do eh?' He drawled, and she turned to look down the street to the boy's receding figure. Her heart beat rose, her skin prickled and she was about to break out in to a run after him when a hand on her shoulder spun her around. 

Ayato looked like a fox. His eyes had a sly shape to them, while his mouth was all sharp smug teeth. 'Could you stop me if I wanted to?' Kill him, he meant and she saw it flash through his eyes. 

She didn't know. He feigned a move and her hand came up to twist around his collar, tugging him down to her with a growl.

'Relax', he smirked. 'My sister will hardly be understanding if i turn up covered in some college boy's blood.'

She let him go, but he looked at her with an even bigger grin. 

'Is this guy bothering you?' 

Hinami closed her eyes and took a deep breath. The boy had puffed himself up and raced all the way back, and she knew if she wasn't careful he would see her kakugan. She kept her head bowed and her voice low. 'No thank you. We're fine.' 

'What's it to do with you?' Ayato teased him, squaring up even if the human was slightly taller and of a bigger build. 

'You're making her uncomfortable.'

'She just told you that I'm not.' He let his smile melt away, and briefly his eyes met Hinami's. The threat there was too much, and finally she couldn't hold herself under it any longer. 

'Just tell him! Just say it! I know you want to say it!' She hissed at her partner. 'There's no one around, so tell him! Tell him we're gh...'

Ayato struck the boy with a quick fist, sending him crashing down to the pavement. The human, squishy brain and all, was knocked out cold, and before Hinami could shout Ayato had her by the hand and they were running down alleyways, winding through with no particular destination in mind. She was laughing, pride making her dizzy with the thought that she had forced his hand. She had finally stopped when he let her go, shaking his head and pushing his hair back over his scalp. 

'Ayato...' She gasped as she caught her breath. 'I can still feel your hands on my back...' Her voice was timid as she spoke, and really the time for this conversation had long passed. She doubted he would touch her again anyway, given the beating she had just given his pride. Her cheeks were red hot as she tried to read his expression through the darkness. 

'Hinami.' He swallowed. 'We should head back to :Re.' 

'But...'

'We're wasting time here. Let's do this quick and clean and get back to the tree. Okay?' 

'Okay.' 

'Good.' He turned and stormed away, and she followed at a distance. 

 


	3. Never wanted a saint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Touka closes :Re early, and upstairs Hinami and Ayato are completely alone.

A few months ago she had almost moved on. Not to anyone or anything like that, they weren't even lovers in the first place. It was just that the feeling of crushing disappointment at the end of the day when she flicked the sign to closed and he still hadn't come in no longer had her gasping for breath in the staff room. A customer thumbing through his old books in the early days was enough to have her leaving the cafe floor, but now every appreciative smile for the literature had her smiling warmly. After all, she couldn't say it would be better to have never met him, she had accepted that he was just a memory.

'Simply put,' she leant back on her chair, cup of coffee held tightly between her hands. 'I was beginning to live without you, shitty Kaneki.' She sipped at her bitter coffee, eyes scanning the two empty chairs at the other side of the table. 

She hadn't seen Hinami since Kan... Sasaki Haise had come back to :Re, and that was probably a good thing. She thought back to the shock of walking in to her new space, her haven, to find him sitting there, slightly taller, leaner but still unmistakable under the ambient lighting. She'd forced a smile and taken his order and when he'd left with his troop of doves she had wandered upstairs and locked herself in her room and she had broken every bone in her own hand. 

She smirked, knocking her knees against the table to stop herself from tumbling backwards. 'Older, not wiser.' She flexed the injured limb though it had long healed. 

'Talking to yourself now?' Ayato asked in a bold but low voice that had her scrambling to sit up without falling backwards. 'Careful there, Aneki.' He was pouring himself a coffee, not even looking at her.

Touka put her coffee down on the table, raking a steadying breath. 'H... How's it going, Ayato?' 

He looked more than a little uncomfortable as he took a seat opposite her, moving his cup to his lips only to change his mind and put it down. He waited.

'Don't tell me Aogiri tree didn't know about him.' She sighed, leaning back and folding her arms over her chest to try and conceal the way her fingers shook. 

He watched her for a moment, then with a flick of his hair he shrugged and picked up his cup. 'We knew. Rumours and hearsay at first. A ghoul who knew a ghoul who knew someone he and his new friends had taken down.' He took a sip, put it back down on the table. 'We didn't tell Hinami.'

Touka's eyes widened. 'So she didn't know?'

He sighed. 'Hinami came to us because she was mourning him, and you. She's an incredible asset, you'd know if you asked her to do anything more than making coffee. Eto felt that her finding out the eyepatch... Uh, Kaneki, was still alive might make her rethink things, especially when she almost came back when she found out about you surviving, rebuilding Antieku.'

'You persuaded her to stay?'

He shrugged again, 'I could do that or I could kill her.' 

Touka's eyes narrowed as she leant forward, 'What exactly do you feel for her?'

'Hah. I simply gave her that option. You don't leave the tree in one piece.' He shook his head, 'plus I think she stayed in the end because it was a way to keep the last people she cared about, you and yours, safe. It was what Kaneki had died for, wasn't it?' 

Touka's features soured. 'Then why did you come here?' 

He frowned, his hair standing on edge as his cheeks coloured, just slightly. 'It's not like that!'

'I have a hard time believing you changed your mind about living like this.' Her nails dug in to the wood at the edge of the table. 

_Fuck!_

He took another sip, weighing his options. 'Hinami... She's...'

Touka relaxed in the silence, eyeing her brother as if he were a ghost. Her lips moved to form vowels but she found herself unable to make the sounds. Oddly, she didn't want to startle him. Some admission had just been passed, a glimpse in to a layer of Ayato she hadn't seen since they were children. 

'Yeah... You know what I mean...' He rubbed his neck, leaning forward. 'I'm a monster, and she's...'

'Ayato.' The sister smiled sadly. 

He shook his head clear, returning to sit with his back rigidly straight. 'Eventually she would be too so, aneki, I'll try your way one last time.' 

* * *

She rarely had time to hunt, and when she did she only made use of it about half of the time. Kirishima Touka perched on a rooftop, watching a particularly vile man stumble down the dark footpath below. He wasn't a murderer, and from what she could tell he wasn't particularly violent either, but she had been stalking a sickly looking guy when this man had caught her eye instead and led her through several wards. 

He didn't take the girl anywhere nice, just took her in the alleyway once he'd handed over the cash. With one hand in the prostitute's dark hair he took out his phone with the other and dialled. 'Hello, love, I'll be leaving the office shortly. Are the children home from school? Let me speak to them.' 

Touka felt sick. Fathers didn't do this, nor husbands. Rats did it, deceived the ones they loved, took pleasure in it. He didn't deserve a family. Why didn't they take his away from him instead of people like her, like Kaneki.

When she killed him, she made sure to leave enough evidence of where he'd been, and what he'd been doing. She barely ate her fill before deciding she couldn't stomach the taste of the bastard anymore and heading back to :Re at a relaxed dawdle.

* * *

Hinami let the scalding water run down her back, painting her pale cream skin with an angry red mark. Every mention of him, Sasaki Haise, that she had heard at Aogiri swam back through her mind and she felt her knees shake. How had she not realised he was alive? 

With a towel wrapped tight around herself she slipped out in to the hallway. The temperature shift made her dizzy, and she didn't pause to dress before throwing herself on the bed. Her cloud print covers were freshly laundered, and cold to her flushed red skin. If there was no chance of him walking through the door she would have throw the towel away and let the cold air at every inch of her skin, but he had already been restlessly pacing the hallway and edging towards her door only to change his mind and walk back to his own for a few minutes now, and the chance of him bursting through the door was dangerously high. 

Part of her thought she should indulge herself anyway. He hadn't touched her since... Well, since he had touched her. Some picture of anguished lovers they were painting. It'd make more sense if Aogiri had thrown them out for saving kittens from trees at this point. Big fluffy kittens, and they belonged to CCG agents. That would be more believable than they cared for each other. They didn't even speak to each other anymore. 

He had seemed so different back there, or perhaps it was just that everyone else was so different. He'd reminded her of Touka at first, physically and though she'd never tell either of them, in the way he spoke and held himself too. He was a textbook jerk, he trained her to fight the same way she imagined he'd teach her to swim - he threw her in at the deep end and didn't shy away from bruising her. But somewhere through the nights of sparring and the information dealing and the intimidation and the tiny steps towards taking down the CCG he softened a little bit or her shell hardened a lot. They became close. Lovers, even if it hadn't lasted more than a few hours. 

'You can come in.' She sat up, holding her towel tight over her chest and careful to pull it down to cover herself.

The door opened with a creak and Ayato slipped inside, closing it behind him softly. 'Can anyone else hear us?'

She shook her head. 'Everyone's out.' 

'You have to hold yourself together, Hinami.' He said it quickly, as if he had been holding it in. 'You should be glad he's alive.' 

She laughed, and her voice barely sounded like her own. 'I'm holding myself together fine, Ayato-kun. Were you worried someone would hear you speaking to me?' 

He smiled, folding his arms and leaning back against the wall. 'I don't get this place.' He admitted, looking at the skyline through her partially drawn curtains. 'I haven't been ignoring you, I just...'

'Oh it's okay. I don't mind.' She felt her face glow red. 'I mean... It's fine! You don't have to explain it!' 

He frowned at her. 'I just want to set the record straight.' He shifted from foot to foot, then settled back against the wall. 'It was good. We just can't do it here.' 

She thought she was going to faint. 

'Because... Because of your sister?' She squeaked.

He shook his head, jaw tense. 'Because they all think you're a saint Hinami, and they wouldn't think it if we...' He floundered for a word. 'If you let me touch you.' 

She could almost see the steam rising from her own skin. 'Eh?' 

'They think you're better than that. And as long as they think that, we're good.' He smirked easily. 

'O... Okay.' She looked down at her hands gripping the towel. 'Uh... Ayato-kun... I need to get dressed now.'

'Sure.'  

* * *

She actually served him his coffee when he came in alone, though Nishiki had practically hissed at Roma to do it. 

'I'll get it. Don't worry.' She had headed straight over as if he wasn't so important, as if he wasn't an old friend. 

'Good afternoon sir. What can I get for you today?' She smiled as sweetly as she could. 

His eyes held a slight disappointment as he looked up at Hinami, but he valiantly tried to hide it. 

'Is Kirishima-san not working today?' He asked hopefully.

'Oh?' Hinami blushed. 'She's in the back today, taking inventory.' 

'Ah I see. I was hoping I could speak to her.' 

'Is it important... uh, sir?' She remembered her goal then, and focused on his scent. Whatever they'd done to him hadn't changed his body beyond the age difference. He was a half ghoul, they hadn't sealed off his power at all. Nishiki had mentioned eventually, that his face had made Kaneki break through, but she supposed the violence involved had heightened things. Her big brother still lost himself to his ghoul side then. 'Can I take your order before I get her?' He smelt like the inspector who had killed her mother. It was faint, feminine, but unmistakably the same. She could remember it, see the refusal to let them go that had cost him his life. 

His face melted in to a sad smile. 'No, miss. I won't be staying.' 

She blinked. 'Alright, just wait a moment.'

She slipped in to the store room and cleared her throat, causing her overworked boss to jump and knock her head on the shelf.

'SHIT!' Touka stood, rubbing her head that had no doubt already stopped hurting. 'Hinami?'

'He wants to speak to you.' She said calmly. There was no doubt who he was. 'He's sitting in the corner...'

'Me?' Touka shrugged her shoulders and wiped her dusty hands on her apron. 

Hinami nodded. 'He says he's not staying.' 

Touka's hand shook as she reached for the door. 'C... Can you stay out here and finish taking stock?' 

'Sure.' Hinami nodded, reaching out to touch a hand to Touka's arm.

_They think you're a saint._

Without saying anything, Touka gave her a watery smile and left, the door swinging shut behind her with a bang. Hinami crossed the room, kneeling down so that she could count the boxes of coffee filters, but never making it past four before starting again. 

Touka took the seat opposite him without saying a word. He stared back, his face unreadable. 

'Tell me I'm wrong.' He braced himself on the edge of the table, as if he was about to fly forward. 

She shook her head slightly. 'About what, Sasaki?'

'You and I knew each other.' Nothing. 'You are a ghoul.' 

Her chest seemed to close in around her lungs. Breaths were hard. 'Are you going to...'

'Everyone here is a ghoul?' 

'Tch.' The anger filled in the calm so suddenly he all but jumped back. 

Around them, the coffee shop went on as usual, though one or two ghoul customers had began to make their way towards the door. 'And you knew me.' It wasn't a question this time. 'What was I to you?'

She took a steadying breath. She had wondered what she would say to him since the first day he had walked in with his group of oddities. 'An idiot. A moron. Someone who thought he could save the world.' That was not what she had wanted to say. 

His usually sweet demeanor was masked now as he tried to read her expression. 'Well, what were you to me?' 

'Someone you left.' She hissed a whisper. 'Now tell me, are we in danger?' 

He sat back with a little shake of his head. The white of his hair hung down over his eyes. 'Not from me.' 

'From your colleagues?' 

'Not through me.' 

'Hm.' She folded her arms across her chest in an effort to stop herself clawing at the table. 'Then what can I do for you?' 

He stood and swept through the cafe in a blur. Left alone, she let her head fall forward, landing on the table with a thump. If any customers turned to look she didn't see them, just stayed there until Roma put a cup of coffee in front of her and asked if she needed anything. 

'No, thank you. But I think we should close early today. Could you...' 

'Of course.' The girl nodded, before walking back to inform Nishiki and heading to the door to flip the sign. No one complained even if it was only two in the afternoon. 

When she found Ayato in Hinami's room shortly afterwards, she didn't say anything. Her brother had stod and turned around and grumbled. 'I was asking her if... I just wanted to...' 

'It's alright.' She smiled in what she hoped was an encouraging manner. 'I was just coming to see if you two... If you wanted a coffee before I go out.' 

'Out?' Hinami asked from the edge of the bed. 'Is Yoriko...'

'Yes. With Yoriko. We're going to see a movie.' 

A lie, Hinami sighed. 'Have fun onee-chan.' 

'Yeah.' He watched his sister go, listening until the downstairs door closed too. 'Shit.' 

Hinami sighed. 'Ayato, she doesn't think as little of you as you think she does. You know that don't you?' 

He mumbled something under his breath before turning to look at her. 'She shouldn't still be that stupid.' 

'Hm.' 

'So go back to this smell.' 

'Some relation to the ghoul who murdered my parents. Female. A daughter or sister perhaps? I think we could draw her out, if we prey on her revenge instinct. She'll have an insight in to what they've learnt, and what they're currently doing.' She paused, scratching the back of her head until her hair stood up. 'I'm sure of it.' 

 He looked as if he was about to speak for a moment, but only sighed and shrugged his shoulders. 'She'll come out for you?'

'The daughter ghoul, and Rabbit.' Hinami smiled innocently. 'She has a very distinct scent. If we were to follow her from the CCG, we could draw her away from her home, capture her...'

'You want to go and wait around outside the CCG building, Hinami?' He smiled, looking almost proud. 'So eager to put yourself in danger?'

'The sooner you stop babying me,' she ran her hand down her neck as she spoke, watching him for any reaction. 'The sooner we can get back to the tree.' 

'Hm.'

She dropped her hands to her lap. 'Unless you want to stay here, Ayato-kun?'

'I hate it here.' He stated, tilting his chin up and holding his fingers to it like the barrel of a gun. 'But I'm not going to put you in danger just to speed things along. Eto would kill me.'

'I can look after myself. Besides, I've thought this through.' 

'Have you?' 

'I have.' She turned to look at her window. 'Oh, Ayato-kun.' She didn't look at him, lips forming a slight pout as she spoke. 'You have to tell me... Did you know Kaneki was still alive all along?' 

_'We shouldn't tell her.'_

_'Well, Ayato, why do you say that?' Eto had chimed. 'Shouldn't she know one of her closest friends is still breathing? Think of how happy she was to find out your sister had survived.'_

_'Tch.' He shook his head. 'She can't leave...'_

_'We'll do just fine without her. But why should she leave?'_

_'We just can't tell her! She might decide this isn't worth it. She was so much like that bastard when she first got here, remember?'_

_Eto had hummed loudly, and put a finger to her chin as she looked him over. 'Okay Ayato. I'll say nothing to her.'_

'Define all along.' 

'Cut the shit, Ayato.' She grit her teeth, turning to glare at him. 

He sighed. 'I've known for a lot longer than anyone at :Re has.' Her eyes grew damp. 'A few months after his presumed death he... They put him to work, small fish at first. Whispers got back and i...'

'You've known that long?' She asked in a weak voice, eyes still on the verge of tears. 'You've known for so long...'

'What would telling you have solved, huh? You'd have gone up to him and asked him to come back? Forgiven and forgotten? Where would that have got you?'

'I wouldn't have!' She snapped, and tears did fall this time. 'And what was it to you if I stayed? You obviously...'

'We don't let people leave Hinami. I'm not a nice person, okay?'

'Hate me! You didn't have to pretend you didn't so I would lend Aogiri my skills! I was there for myself, Ayato! You had nothing to do with whether I stayed or not, and neither did Kaneki.' She wiped her eyes on her too long sleeve, sighing as she pulled a sunflower clip from her hair And clenched it in her palm. 'I'm not your plaything!'

He had stepped away from the wall, an angry energy buzzing around him. 'I kept you safe! Without me you'd be dead you brat so give it a rest!'

'And I've never kept you alive?'

In truth, he was enjoying this. Hinami had gone from shy, to jaded, to quiet but cheeky through their years together, but she had never spoken to him with such disrespect, even though he had deserved it enough times. She looked fierce, glaring up at him defiantly and baring her teeth. Her eyes filled black, and he felt his heart thud around his chest at twice it's normal speed at the thought of her attacking. 

'Fucking you was a mistake.' He felt dizzy as he said it.

It hit her a moment later, her lips dropping open. 

'You're making this personal. It isn't personal. And that wasn't personal either!'

It had felt personal, she thought thinking back to him leaning over her, unable to mask the fact he was as inept as she was at the particular act, that he was just a little bit nervous.

'Fucking?' She squeaked. 

'I've used you Hinami. How stupid can you be...' 

She leapt at him, fist connecting with his jaw and gracing them both with a loud click. A mortal would have fallen to the floor, or even flown back through the door, but somehow the ghoul had stood his ground and quicker as he was he pulled her arm, turning her and holding her to him, his hands holding her wrists to her chest. They were both breathing as if they had fought for hours, not seconds, and with every breath she leant back against him. 

She had told herself that it had been just comfort. He had a body, a nice body, and she'd used him for it. Why did him saying that upset her? 

His lips hovered just behind her ear as he tightened his grip and everything south of her scalp turned to jelly. 

'I used you too.' She stammered. She felt him pressed against her hips and back, burning her through her uniform. He didn't pull away when she bent slightly at the waist, pushing her backside against him. Instead he moved forward leading her towards the bed, still holding tight to her hands. His lips grazed the side of her neck, barely there at all.

'You shouldn't be so stupid,' He warned, loosening his grip and turning her to face him. 

He pushed her on to the bed, and her legs flew up. He caught them under her knees and pulled them apart, dropping to his own. He pulled at her tights, rolling them down her pale legs even as she wriggled against him. She kept her eyes on him but fisted her hands in to the cloudy sheets, and when he pushed his hand against her panties she threw her head back with a muttered plea. 

The soft cotton felt so restrictive between them, and when he stopped the pressure to free her from it she could only lift her legs up to help him, excitement building as he pulled the simple cotton pants over her ankle and foot and threw them behind him. His hands were rough at her thighs, and for his efforts she was giving little gasps, though they were getting quieter the closer he moved to her. When his fingers finally found purchase on the soft pink skin of her sex she was completely silent.

He touched her carefully at first, running the tip of his finger up and down and fighting the urge to say her name. As he stroked he varied the pressure, and once her breaths were once again audible he focused on the place she had gasped the hardest at. He wasn't surprised when she sat up abruptly, both hands clinging to his forearm as her mouth twitched. 

'I'm g... Going to...' 

He kept his lips hovering just out of reach as he rubbed his fingertips over her in rough little circles. 'Going to what?' He smirked as she gripped his arm harder and tried to close her legs. 

'Ayato!' 

She tore his hand away and shouted, unaware of his arm sweeping around her back to keep her upright when she surrendered to the bliss. His name slipped through her lips like a secret. 

'Hinami,' he let her lower her legs and sit up, his hands hanging awkwardly at his sides. His cheeks were flushed but compared to her he could have been a corpse. Her eyes were glazed and heavy, while she had chewed on her lips in such a vain attempt to keep from shouting for him that they were a dark wet shade of pink. He should have been cruel then, cemented himself as a villain, or waited for her to announce he had fulfilled his uses, but he'd always been too soft on her, and anyway, she had never really wanted a saint.

He pressed his lips to hers then, a silent admission and apology. It was so soft and chaste that when he pulled back her expression had barely changed. She still looked dazed with her skin flushed, only now she was slowly unbuttoning her shirt with her shaking fingers. She let the material slip down her shoulders as she reached for his jacket, pulling the zip down slowly. She pulled him to his feet and slid his jacket down his arms, letting it fall on the floor behind him. 

Biting her lip she let her shirt fall the rest of the way, leaving her in her simple white bra and her uniform skirt. With a deep breath she reached behind herself to unclip the bra, then let it fall between them, keeping her eyes fixed on a spot at the centre of his T-shirt clad chest. Then she waited.

He was slow to move at first, his eyes slowly scanning her body, all the way down to her nerve curled toes. His hands came up to tug at her skirt before he'd really told them to, but once it was gone, pooled around her feet, they brushed the soft skin of her hips and ribs. 

'Last chance.' His voice was a hoarse whisper. 

She took one of his hands and led it across her skin, up to the small mound of her breast. His kiss knocked the air from her lungs, and her cries were muffled as one hand pawed at her chest while the other dug in to her backside. They didn't part for air until she pulled his T-shirt up and over, her small hands roaming the skin of his shoulders and chest. She pushed his jeans down and as he kicked them off she pulled away, throwing the cloud duvet back and lying down.

She hadn't been nervous the first time, but there she was, lying in her new bed and trembling as he stripped off to join her. He was a self confessed bastard, it was a mistake to let him know what he meant but he was a shitty liar and he was kissing her like he loved her. She swallowed her worries when he finally climbed on the bed and placed an urgent kiss on her bruised lips. 

'Ayato!' She gasped as he settled over her, lips suckling at her clavicle as he readied himself with his hand. With his other, he traced her soaked flesh, parting her, preparing her with a finger before slowly pushing inside.

He couldn't have told anyone why he was taking it so slowly the second time around, but he could appreciate the way she moved under him this time, how she raised her legs on his hips and arched her back. He found he didn't mind the lazy pace, not when she was purring with every inch he slid into her. They had no real reason to rush after all. 

Or perhaps they did, since her hands were pulling at his hair, her feet at his ass.

It was early morning when they finally stopped altogether in favour of sleep. It hadn't all been sex, at one point they had dressed and gone down to make coffee, only to end up back in bed a few minutes later because she had bent over to get the coffee beans and he had on impulse begun to caress her bum. 

'Wheres Yomo, anyway?' She whispered as he pulled her against him so her head was on his chest and her arm draped across his stomach. 'Not that I'm not glad he wasn't here for all this...'

'He'll kill me.' He laughed, voice heavy with sleep. 

She yawned. 'He wouldn't dare, Ayato-kun.'

He drifted off to the idea of Hinami fighting Yomo, and dreamt of her with him, tearing through a pack of doves. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut. Well, yeah. I think I'll sort this out once it's all up, clean it up a bit, but this whole idea is kind of rough anyway so thanks for bearing with it.
> 
> Let me know what you think anyway :)


	4. Daughter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dogs, RC suppressants and revenge.

The rain did nothing to dull the ghoul's sense. She was waiting at a corner where the females dove's scent was still strong under the musk of rain and other humans. Ayato buzzed to and from her side with a thousand questions. 'Are you sure she hasn't left already', 'You'll be recognised like that won't you?', 'it's been three hours, shouldn't we come back tonight, you know, when she leaves work?'

It was almost cute really. Despite their current task she found herself hopelessly excited at the prospect of his next interruption. His disguise of a waterproof camo jacket and a black beanie hat wasn't a million miles from his usual look, but the clear thick framed glasses made him look somehow stupid, especially as he adjusted them on average once every thirty seconds. 

Her own disguise was a simple black wig and heavy red lipstick that she wore with a permanently disinterested smile. She had borrowed one of his T-shirts and paired it with his hoody, a pair of short shorts and fishnet tight. At first she had hated it, but as the day wore on she slipped in to the role a little further. At one point Ayato had sat down on the wall beside her and mocked the way she was glaring at a red haired woman who was dragging a dog down the pavement faster than it could walk. 'Did I ask you to speak?' She fixed him with her black rimmed eyes, mock pouting. 'Besides, I've always wanted a dog.'

He had bristled under her gaze, and she could see the desire to bite back dissipate in to an amused smirk. 'You're enjoying this.'

'You're wasting my time, dweeb.' 

'A bit too much.'

'Look, we've been standing here for hours, it's raining... I say we change tactic... We're lucky no one has thought we are suspicious yet...'

'You can go if you like. I thought you wanted to get back to the Tree.'

He sighed and tore off his hat, scratching his scalp before replacing it. Without his earrings he looked a bit softer, and deep down Hinami felt a pang for the life they might have had if his father and her parents hadn't met their demise and set them both on the path of conflict. The little she'd heard about young Ayato from Touka painted a picture of a little boy with mud on his knees, a fear of insects and an unbreakable smile. It was only recently she could connect that Ayato to hers. 

'Hmm, I will then.' 

'Good.' Her sharpness couldn't quite hide her disappointment as he stormed away without another word, and the mask of makeup and forced distain did nothing to dampen her relief when he returned, a red umbrella over his head and a small dog tucked under one arm. 

He offered the umbrella to her and she took it, biting her lip to stop herself from smiling. Holding the fluffy toy tog to his chest he scratched it under its ear, earning a small whine of approval from the pup. 'You're such a loser.' He told it, before looking at Hinami with playful eyes. 'But now he's our loser.'

'Ours?' She smirked. 'I thought you rescued him for me.'

'Hm.' It was his turn to pout. 'I suppose.'

'Then I get to name him, and I think he's lucky I spotted him.'

Ayato looked down at the furry bundle. 'Lucky? Do you like that?'

She broke character and laughed, her cheeks glowing red and eyes sparkling. 'You are a dweeb! Ayato-kun, you hide it so well!'

'Tch, I'm in character Hinami.' He was still smiling with good humour, Lucky squirming to lick at his chin. 

It was dark when the female investigator finally left the office building. The two disguised ghouls had found themselves pressed under the shelter if a overhang from the CCG building itself. Hinami had assured him she could smell the mark even from the back of the building, and so they and Lucky had sat through soft conversation, and neither mentioned the fact that he wasn't usually this soft, or that they would probably never talk this way again. 

When the wind had blown particularly hard down the alley, Hinami had pressed in to his side, and with her under his arm and a dog on her lap he was simultaneously full of longing and Hatred. He was still struggling with his internal alignment when she knocked him away and jumped to her feet, sending the little ball of fluff to the floor. 'She's making a move.'

* * *

Akira often walked home. It gave her time to think. Other women her age might wonder if their husband was home from work yet, if their children got in to trouble that day in school, but her thoughts were with a son, so to speak, that wasn't even human. 

When they had told her at the beginning she had wanted so badly to be the person at the trigger end of the rifle when he lost his grasp and had to be put down. Centipede, Eyepatch, he was her enemy. He had ties to Aogiri Tree, and Rabbit, and Amon and... And he had done despicable things! He was a ghoul, for god's sake.

She popped her umbrella and shook her hair out of her eyes. 'What are you playing at Haise?' She asked the rain soaked evening. Usually she would have known the answer, but when they had pulled her in to an impromptu meeting and asked her that very question she had been at a loss. 

'He's a ghoul, so I can't say what he's up to really.' That little shit Urie had shrugged when he had been called in. She'd wanted to rub his face against the cold metal surface of the table and teach him some respect, but he wasn't wrong so she had shot him a shit eating grin and dismissed him.

'I don't know, but I hope he comes back soon because I'm losing weight without his cooking, I tell ya.' Saiko had rubbed her still round stomach and whined. 

'He just needed a break I think. He's been working really hard and I think it's getting to him.' Mutsuki had watched his own fingers dance on the table top as he spoke. 'I'm worried about him.'

'Me too.' And Akira wasn't lying. 'But why wouldn't he tell me he was taking some leave?'

'P... Perhaps he didn't want to worry you?'

Well now she was worried. Now she was livid, actually. In a few days someone might give the order to put him down, and she'd have to do it and it would serve him right for not coming to see her first wouldn't it? For all she knew he was already painting one of the wards red, or at the same time he could just be shivering in his own bed, crying in to the sheets for a past he couldn't remember. Neither thought brought any comfort. 

* * *

Hinami was itching by the time they neared the woman's apartment. She wanted to throw off her disguise and challenge her, daughter to daughter, she wanted the revenge she had once passed up. If she had just taken it then, perhaps she would still have her brother, he wouldn't be in this dove's clutches, he'd be with her and Touka, home, because he wouldn't have had to protect her. 

They watched the woman go inside, and before Hinami could move she felt something wrap around her wrist. 'The plan was to gather information. You've done that, so what are you doing now?'

she turned to glare at him, but found herself flinching when his face changed to an expression more fitting of Aogiri Tree's Kirishima Ayato than the him of twenty minutes ago with a puppy tucked under his arm. 

'We'll pass on where she lives, Hinami. You can go back to :Re and wash your hands...'

'Wash my...' She let her head drop, watching as he slowly offered the newly acquired pet to her. 

He cleared his throat. 'Take him...'

'Ayato-kun, I need to do this.'

He huffed, taking the fake specs from his nose and tucking them awkwardly in his pocket before thrusting the dog in to her arms and taking a step back. 'You're just a stupid girl, Hinami. Don't you realise this is bigger than revenge?' His words stung though there was no venom. 'Take the shitty dog, go back to that shitty coffee shop and live like shitty Touka. You were never cut out for the Tree. I knew from the start...'

'Where's this coming from?' She stammered, angered even more when he threw his hat to the ground and ruffled his hair. 

He laughed. 'Come on Hinami. You've led us to information that could turn things to our favour. We knew they were making half ghouls, and Eto's elbow deep but how did they wipe him clean? How did they repurpose someone that fucked up - oh come on now, he was fucked up. Me and that eyepatch bastard worked together enough for me to know. Eto's soft on you, or I would have cut you lose when you first arrived, and every day since, so take this chance and go back, brat, before she's not soft on you anymore.'

'I can do this!' She shouted, and if she had been listening, she would have heard a pretty investigator peek through her curtains And complain to her cat.

He laughed again. 'You're not listening. We're done. There's no more information to be gained at :Re and you've led us to the home of a very important Dove. You're out of uses Hinami.'

She gritted her teeth, and in the dark wig and the sultry make up she looked so fierce, a completely different person. It was easier to tell her these things when she didn't look quite so much like a clean cut angelic type. 

'I don't believe you.' She blinked away tears. 'I'm as guilty as you are...'

'I don't remember you ever getting your hands dirty.' 

'But I stood next to you while you did.' She hissed. 'That's just as bad. I'm just as bad.' In her hands, Lucky whined and she shifted him closer to her chest. 

'Ayato.' The voice caused them both to turn, faces drained of any colour. Beside Haise, his sister looked like a watercolour, hair sticking down in the rain, bright yellow shirt turned more mustard. 'I wished I was wrong, you know.'

He smiled, but it was cold and hollow in the dark. 'Then that's you're failure, aneki, not mine.'

Touka's expression turned hard. 'I said I wished I was wrong. I knew better though.'

Beside her Sasaki Haise scratched his chin. 

Hinami looked towards the home of Mado Akira and sighed. 

'What happened to you, Hinami-chan?' Haise asked in a voice so soft it made her heart ache. He couldn't be...

'What happened to you, eh?' Ayato barked a laugh, 'One of the most fierce ghouls in Tokyo trained up and set to work for the very people you hated. How do you let that happen to yourself? Where's your pride?'

He shrugged nonchalantly. 

The loud click of a gun cocking brought their attention to the woman at the door, her gaze fixed on the back of Hinami's head. 'Do you think I'd not recognise you, 745, even through that ridiculous get up?'

'Ak...'

'Haise, you're lucky I'm not aiming this at you, now, turn!' She ordered. 

Hinami stooped and placed the dog who had, for an evening, been her and Ayato's, on the ground before straightening,  smoothing down her skirt and turning to face the daughter of the men who had killed her parents. 

Akira's face was cold, even as she broke in to a grin. 'Daughter ghoul, after all these years you've come to me. It's fate.'

'Akira please. She's lost everyone as well, this won't end anything!'

Touka's hand wound around his firearm, before she stepped forward, 'besides, it was the Rabbit who killed your father, and she's standing right here.'

'Touka-chan!' He gasped as the bullet knocked her back in to him. He looked up when the sound repeated, just in time to see Ayato crumple to his knees and Hinami rush forward, twin kagunes proudly growing from her back. 

The shot to Touka's shoulder should not have been fatal, but experimental bullet's payload of RC suppressants meant no healing factor, and too much blood to be of no threat. 'Fuck!' She grunted. 

Akira shouted as her side was pierced and gun wrestled away. She was thrown to the ground where Sasaki Haise rushed to check her over before he stood to head back to Rabbit.

'You... traitor!' Akira winced. 'You're not a ghoul...'

He stopped but did not turn around, instead speaking in to the rain in a hushed whisper. 'I'm not human either, am I? I'm fed up of being forced in to sides.'

She watched as he scooped the purple hairs ghoul in to his arms, cradling her like a bride to his chest. His eyes fixed on her sadly one last time before he was gone, replaced by the distant yapping of a startled dog and the steady beat of the rain hitting the ground. Her back up arrived a few minutes later, but no trace of the four ghouls could be found but for a disgraced hat and a few drops of blood. 

* * *

'Please.' Hinami repeated for the twentieth time that minute. 'I need to see him.'

'Hinami,' Yomo stated in a deep but gentle voice. 'What have you told Aogiri about us?'

She let a tear track down her already rain washed face. 'Nothing! This is a coffee shop, you're helping those that can't hunt! Let me see him!'

'What do they want with us?' 

'I don't know! Please!'

'They must have sent you here for a reason Hinami.'

'Let me out! He could die!' 

'Hm.' Was his only response before closing the door to what appeared to be a holding cell beneath :Re.  

For the first time in a long time Hinami found herself crying herself to sleep. 

It was a few hours later that Touka came, arm in a sling and looking deathly pale but still holding herself strong, to tell her that he was still alive. 'You're lucky, she was aiming at your head so he took the bullet just above his heart. It pierced his lung, but with Kaneki's blood that's beginning to heal. He's not in danger now.'

'C... Can I see him?'

Touka thought it over for a moment, before nodding. 'He says you were kept mostly in the dark... Hinami, tell me now, are you loyal to Aogiri?'

She sniffed, shaking her head. 'But... I want them to hurt like we hurt. I want them to realise that feeling!'

'Hinami.' Touka said sadly, reaching out to take the girl's hand. 'The problem isn't that they don't understand.' She pushed a kiss to the younger ghoul's hair. 'It's that they don't know we understand.'

* * *

'What do you want?' He grumbled, rubbing a hand over his bandaged chest. 'I've already been questioned by Yomo, shitty eyepatch and my idiotic sister, so tell me what they've sent you in for.' He turned his sharp eyes on Hinami, shifting against the pillows that supported his head. 

'You look awful.' She sat in the chair at the bedside, watching him as if he might bolt at any moment. 

'Are you the carrot or the stick?'

'Ayato-kun...'

'I'm tired. I took a bullet full of RC suppressants to the lung so sorry if I'm not in a talkative mood.'

'Well.' Anger cracked her soft features. 'She wasn't actually aiming for you.'

'Right, no. Next time I'll just let the fucker shoot you. My mistake.'

'Ayato...'

'Or I could just not get involved with arguing about a shitty dog, and we could have done our jobs...'

'I need you.' 

Any remaining colour drained from his face. 

She waited, watching as he slowly closed his eyes only to be taken completely off guard when his hand touched the cool skin of her knee. She snaked her fingers through his and looked up to find him looking at her, an unreadable but soft expression on his face. 'Of course you do.'

'Always so humble.'

'Always so needy.'

Touka came back with two plates of meat, only to set them on the side and back out quietly, the image of Hinami curled against her brother's side sparking an internal debate that would cloud her mind until the next morning.

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this makes sense. I think Akira would actually be better than this, but there we go. I do wonder how she feels about Haise/Kaneki, if she hates him just a little bit for all the things he's done. 
> 
> So everyone might seem ooc, reading this back to myself. 
> 
> Let me know what you think.


	5. The most tragic of endings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rabbit heads a revolution. Kaneki Haise bridges the gap, and Ayato doesn't quite know if he was right or not.

 

They had probably made a mistake, she thought as she sipped her coffee and watched the sunrise from a porch of rotting wood. Well it didn't matter now, it was all done and dusted. Kirishima Touka put down her empty mug and sighed, eyes fixing on the band of pink that was breaking through the trees. 

In the age of technology, the answer had been so simple, and yet the same process had liberated races and the oppressed for centuries. 'We're not mindless monsters', he had whispered in to her hair one night, pulling her against him and sighing in a way that made her want to fall in to him. 'And I've been on both sides. I know what the problem is now I remember.'

'Do you know how to fix it?' She had asked, taking his hand in hers. 

His warm lips found her cheek before he nestled in to her neck. 'I have some thoughts.'

'Shitty Kaneki, you think too much.' She turned to look at him, a fondness in her voice even as she teased. 'But us ghouls can't even agree amongst ourselves. How can we make peace, hm? It's a dream, isn't it?'

He kissed her so gently it felt like a goodbye. 'All I ever wanted for you...' 

'I know, and I had it for a while. I need you to know that.'

He smiled sadly, and she kissed him, her lips a bit more pressing, more urgent. Her fingers found their way to his monochrome hair and quite suddenly she pulled back, tussling it until it stood up at all angles. He had chased her around the room like a whirl wind, but when she let him catch her any faux anger gave way to pure adoration. The life they were dreaming of didn't come from more bloodshed. 

And so here they hid, twenty miles from the nearest town and fridge stocked with blood bags and long dead body parts to keep them alive. 

_If you want peace..._

They waged war with videos, graffiti, leaked information and an appeal to the humanity of the people they had previously hunted. Somehow ghouls had gone from violent murderers to loveable rogues and some humans were even marching with them in the streets (though occasionally those marches still ended with both parties slaughtered and organisers hunted down and detained). Older ghouls and some who had lost too much fought still, one of the reasons why peace, a definitive peace, was so difficult to come by. No negotiations could be made until blood was no longer spilled.

'Are you asking us to fight them?' Ayato had hissed at her one night. 'For your shitty peace Aneki.'

'No,' she sighed, holding his gaze. 'I want you to switch sides.'

Hinami had gone stiff, almost dropping the cup she had been dutifully washing in the sink. 

Kaneki put a hand to her elbow, and she found her own resolve harden as she stared her brother down. 'They've stopped hunting us down, Ayato, but until Aogiri Tree is pulled up we won't be safe.'

'We're not safe! We're hiding in the middle of butt fuck nowhere and Doves are still killing ghouls every day!'

Sasaki nodded, his eyes tracing a pattern on the wooden beams of the floor as he spoke. 'But the people are starting to question them. If we neutralise Aogiri they'll no longer be too afraid to fight them.'

'It's a pipe dream!' He hissed, but he didn't say no. 

She had watched he and Hinami all day, watched them dance around each other and try and conceal the little hand touches, or stolen conversations. 

He had been gone in the morning and Hinami hadn't spoken to her since. 

* * *

'Kaneki!' She gasped as his hand roamed under her shirt, bruising the soft skin of her breast as he kissed at her neck, her lips, her jaw. 

When her hands trailed up his torso he pulled back for air. 'I'm still getting used to that. My own name.'

'Kaneki-ken. Kaneki-ken.' She pushed him backwards and scrambled to sit on his lap, one arm wrapped around his neck while her other began to undo the shirt buttons. 'Sasaki Haise. Kaneki... Ken. Haise...'

'Are you alright?' He laughed. 'Touka?'

She tore open the buttons, letting him ogle her before clamping down on his earlobe, drawing it in to her lips. 'I like this you.' She told him when he pushed her down and pinned her beneath him, his left eye black and red as he tore at her trousers And ran his lips all over her exposed chess with no sense or pattern. 

'Well...' He panted, sinking down to run his lips along the soft skin of her stomach, but instead of finishing his sentence he found himself peeling away her black lace boxers and burying his face in to the heat between her legs.

'Oh you fucker!' She jolted, toes curling as his hand pushed her stomach down. 'Ka... Ka...'

He didn't stop until she had kicked him and turned on to her front muffling her cries as he kissed up her spine, and when his lips touched her ear, his breaths short with need, she pushed herself back against him, sighing. 

'Fuck, I missed you,' she confessed as he buried himself inside her, pulling her as close to him as he could with an arm around her chest and the other on her hip. 

'We literally did this yesterday, Touka-chan.' He grunted, smirking as she turned her head to try and kiss him, and moving back to keep his lips out of her reach. 

'That's n... Not what I... I...' He kissed her, before burying his head in her neck. 'What I mean you ass.'

'You're so mean, Touka-chan!' His hand on her back pushed her upper body forward, as he leant back. Immediately there was more friction, a delicious tightness.

'Oh there!' She screamed. Pressing her head in to the pillow. 'Right there! Don't stop!'

'Please?'

'Please!' 

'I'm not going anywhere.' He repeated it until they were both spent, and he was shaking with the effort of not crushing her. 

She was sore, and vaguely aware that intelligent and strong revolutionists shouldn't partake in unprotected sex before any headway had been made, but neither of them wanted anything but skin between them, both too selfish and too stubborn. A part of herself she hated loved the warmth he left behind, the feeling of him emptying himself in to her, and even though she knew that giving in to that part - the mother, the wife in the apron with another on the way ~~and a Dove at the door~~ \- was stupid, she couldn't bring herself to ask him to stop. 

'When you're finished', she teased, and he fell to his side, hand covering his eyes. 

He panted. 'You are so beautiful. How did I get someone this beautiful?'

'You suffered for it.' She turned to face him, voice soft. 

'Hah. Worth every second.'

She knew she wasn't, he still woke up some nights screaming and tearing at his own skin, but it made her heart thump all the same. The price of his memories was reliving the agony, and whenever he did he would lash out, not Kaneki or Sasaki, centipede. He'd almost taken her arm completely off at the shoulder the first time, but he was getting quicker and quicker to calm and harder to wake.

When Rabbit appeared to the press at a secret location later that day, she left out the fact that she could still feel him in an ache between her thighs. 

* * *

He had been wrong, he realised, wiping the dust from his black jeans. If ghouls triumphed he'd still have to spend all of his time trudging back and forth through building sites and rubble. It was stylistic. It was Eto's big fuck you to the world, 'you start to build and us ghouls will tear it down.'

In the distance, bullets rang out as they were imbedded in thick chunks of concrete, or the flesh of the unlucky ghouls and brainwashed ex doves.

'Eto?' He called for the bandaged ghoul, who was still swinging her legs over the edge as if no battle raged underneath. 'Surrender or you'll lose everyone.'

She didn't turn. 'You know, when you came back you never said we anymore, Ayato.'

He growled. 'They'll all die for nothing.'

'Not for nothing. We'll take out more of them than they will us. We'll never be their pets, or at their mercy.'

'You'll never be anything. You'll be dead. They'll all be dead.'

'Didn't you know when you were leading us to this, Ayato? Didn't you know that you were killing us?' Her tone was too sweet, too musical. 'For what it's worth, I hope you and Hina-chan at least taste happiness.' She turned her head to him, outline of a smile pulling at her mask. 'It'll make for the most tragic of endings.'

Ayato watched from a nearby building as the one eyed owl fell, taking with it the already crumbling foundations of a building once slated to be a school. In the aftermath Doves and ghouls spluttered from the rubble, but aside from small scraps the fight was over. Aogiri Tree was no more.

A small hand wound around his, squeezing the fingers tightly until he threaded his finger's through hers. 

'I have no idea what I'm doing.' He admitted, turning to face her. 'I don't think I did the right thing.'

A tear ran down her cheek. 'Then why did you do it?' 

His grip on her hand tightened. 'Our whole world's a fucking mess, so I don't think it was the wrong thing either, I just...' He sighed. 

'I'm not so sure either b... But if I think about it, I think I'd rather it this way. I want them to know we can feel things, that we can love and lose things, that we're not just ravenous monsters they need to destroy.'

'Its going to take fucking decades.' He leant against her.

* * *

 

** Epilogue **

Yoriko sipped her latte, eyeing Touka as if she might explode at any second. 'A ghoul?'

'Rabbit.'

'The Rabbit?' 

'Yes.'

'Touka-chan, are you telling me that you ate all of that food...'

'Yoriko, that's hardly the most important...'

'Is your boyfriend also a...'

'He's not my...'

'So he never ate it either?'

Two rooms away Hinami smiled as she traced idle patterns on her lovers chest. 'Your heartbeat is erratic. Is something wrong?' She pressed her lips to his chest, just above his heartbeat. 'I thought you'd be happy...'

'What if it wasn't a false alarm?' He drawled, his palm dancing across the thankfully flat skin of her belly. She blushed, dropping her head to his chest and avoiding his gaze. 'I'd be a shitty father.'

'It was, so don't worry.'

'Not as shitty as that eyepatch would be but I'd be shitty.' He'd been thinking about a sad eyed man who had walked out one night and turned up years later as an enemies weapon. For days he had tried to imagine the advice he might share. 'I'm too selfish. So... So don't let me do that to you, okay?'

Hinami held it in for a full ten seconds before rolling on her back and laughing with such a bright voice he couldn't help but smile as he felt his cheeks glow red. 

'What?' He snapped after a while, once he'd wrestled his own smile from his face. 

'The way you said it! You sounded so...'

He huffed, sitting up and looking down at her, still laughing with her stomach on show. 'Sounded what?' He prodded her side and she yelped, giggles falling from her lips between gasps for air.

'Normal. You... We sounded normal.' 

He froze, and sensing his tension she sat up beside him, pulling her shirt down to cover her pale skin. 'Well,' he sighed, not looking at her. 'Do you want normal? The dog, the baby and neighbours who all think we're human?'

She shook her head. 'For now I just want you to stop being so serious Ayato-kun.' She teased softly. 

'Well you stop almost making me a shitty father.' He grumbled. 

'Because you didn't help at all.' She puffed out her chest and put her hands to her hips. 

'Its not as if I have anything better to do these days Hinami.' He realised what he'd said a moment later, and burst into a loud roar of laughter. 

'Ugh, why do I love you again?' She shook her head, then froze as his laughter came to an abrupt stop, her face filling up with a pink hue. 

He didn't speak, but as she tried to turn away he caught her by the chin and pressed his lips to hers. He didn't want her to take it back even if he'd never acknowledge she'd said it. 

'I need you.' He admitted to the hollow of her throat in a hint of a whisper.

'Good.'

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end....
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> Except probably not. I was just getting too domestic so I wanted to end it here. Also because the more I went on the more i was straying from my original plot and the characters were getting a little ooc. 
> 
> Thank you for reading :)  
> See ya soon.


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